Aang's Final Return
by AithneGoddess
Summary: The world is plunged into darkness leaving only one man capable of standing up for what he believes in.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Prologue

There was a time before… of war and anger and greed but this was not such a time. It was now the age of cowardliness and hiding. Preserving one's self was the key ingredient to life.

Losing the Last War had plunged all of mankind into submission to the creatures that now roamed and ruled the earth. They were creatures of darkness, of pure blackness and evil, that knew only the instinct of lust. The lust to kill, to rape, to dominate.

This is a story of that time and of the one man who still had the sense to want something better.


	2. Cave Dwellers

**READ AND REVIEW! Please and thank you! ******

Cave Dwellers

For miles and miles there was nothing but rock: Sometimes dripping with sludgy moisture at other times, as dry as a bone. It had been this way for eight long torturous years. The Windy Peaks no longer stood tall and proud. They crumbled into ash, buried in the deepest waters; forgotten masters of the air left to disappear. Taiyou had hidden his face in shame, only daring to look upon the earth for the occasional hour each month. He had been wronged in the way only evil can summon and did no longer wish to use the ability he had been created with. Crumbling earth fell away from itself into the heavy air and seas. Oceans no longer existed. There was no sustaining circle of life that was known.

She couldn't remember the feeling of grass between her toes or the smell of the salty ocean air. There were only ten of her people left; ten people out of two hundred thousand had survived. No one held out hope of anything any longer. Even her people had begun to turn savage, the ways of the Oni was rubbing off onto the few human creatures still alive. They were turning into the very monsters they despised. She felt it during the hours they were confined to the cave where her "village" hid.

The men had become colder, crueler in their treatment towards both the women and children. The children had learned not to cry, as had the women for this action seemed to launch the men into fits of often violent rage. And, although it was hard to keep one's self clean in this such situation, everyone had begun to, it seemed to her, lose their ability to care for themselves or their responsibilities.

She had the feeling…that soon this last place of refuge would become just as dark, evil, and threatening as the outside had become.

**P.S. Sorry the chapters are so short. These first few chapters are going to be more like introductions so just bare with me. ******** Thanks guys!**


	3. Into The Trees

**Hey guys before you start reading make sure you aren't eating anything. It gets nasty. READ and REVIEW Please!! Enjoy! : )**

Into The Trees

He ran, sprinting in and out, over and under the dead and dying flora on the forest floor. There was no direction, no orientation what-so-ever in how he ran; all he knew was that his life depended on the movement of his legs. Right beneath his chest his heart lay, pumping, beating, faster than it ever had before. His lungs were swollen with every breath of onerous air he took in and collapsed as soon as it was absorbed into his blood.

Starving and uncaring of the danger surrounding him, he scanned the area around him as he moved. The white bark of the dead trees made it hard to see movement. Everything was a blurry-gray as the dawn began to approach ever so slowly and he moved ever faster towards nothing.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught the last glimpse of the tail of something furry. He veered left, changing direction without any thought.

_Must eat. Food. Blood. Life._

He dove, making no noise, pouncing on the risu making it squeal and spit in fear. Its claws came up slicing at his face, tearing his flesh. Fed up with the rodents useless fighting, he grabbed it by the tail and swung hard, knocking the creature against the stone-like trunk of a lifeless tree. Not quite as alive but not quite dead yet, the squirrel hissed, a sad, pitiful moan escaping through its throat.

He swung it again. And again. Staining the white of the trees red with the blood from the animal. As soon as the smell of the warm crimson life reached his nose, he stopped, not caring if it was still alive, and began to eat.

Tearing through the skin with his teeth, peeling back the pelt like it was the wrapper to a sweet, sweet candy, he slurped at the sticky sustenance. He ripped flesh from bone, twisting the skin until it came away from the muscles. He chewed on it, savoring the ripe stench of death, of food. The blood of the squirrel covered his face, slid down his almost naked body, and, standing there among the white of the Dead Forest, he looked like nothing less than a demon devouring its prey.

**I told you it would be gory and it gets even better later. Just hang with me people! And review! Please! Love you!**


	4. Desert Storm

**You liking it so far guys? I can't tell when you don't send me reviews! Lol love you.**

Desert Storm

They huddled together; A mass of bodies clinging to one another for comfort and warmth. No one said anything. No one looked at each other at all.

Silence had become the new conversation of the tribe and each person had slowly lost their connections with everyone else. Their speech had been lost to them as the group of twenty-three people roamed the desert in stifling calm.

Sight was of no importance any longer for there was nothing to see. In fact, a few of the members had gone blind from lack of using their eyes. The only two things to observe were the boney appendages of their starving people or sand.

The desert was no longer a region of glorious heat. All it was, was sand. Sand and sky. Neither was a significant color; never varying from their monotone shades of gray. The men stationed as guards walked around with their make-shift spears and knives staring up at the heavens, quiet tears streaming down their cheeks.

Hope was not an option. Survival was just another way to pass the time.

**As you've all noticed by now, I have not used any names yet. Just hold on. We must introduce the new cultures in order to understand the people from them. : ) love you all! Read and Review please!**


	5. Ashy Remains

**Thank you to those of you who are sending me reviews! They are much appreciated. I'm somewhat busy with school right now so it may take me a little while to get new chapters up. :( Sorry.**

Passing over a smoky plume coming from deep inside the core of the volcano, a single bird, a lone Kamome flew like a ghost searching for another of its kind. Flocks of these birds were now scarce, rarely seen by the few human eyes that were left.

A small group of people moved about a make-shift camp, doing oddly proverbial but somewhat useless chores. The dictator of the group was not whom you would normally expect to take charge in times like these. Long and wiry she sat atop the moss patch that grew only on the solid volcanic rock. Later on that evening, chunks of that same moss would settle in the bellies of the tribe.

Only twelve people, mostly men, but still they were a small group, she thought, her eyes wandering over the mother and child sitting together. They were alone while the other three women mingled in with the men, hoping for attention and readily receiving it.

She had forbid them to touch one another, knowing that a pregnant woman would never survive the conditions they lived in. It wasn't her choice, she had to look out for her people.

_I'll return them to glory. _ She thought to herself as she watched their pitiful dance of animalistic instinct. _I'll make them honorable again._

And the mother and child sat there alone, watching their husband and father fall at the feet of the younger women.

**Not my favorite chapter but it had to be done. Okay guys so now the story can begin. :) **


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